Editors’ Picks for December 2022

10 reviews handpicked from the latest issue of Choice.

Posted on December 8, 2022 in Editors' Picks

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This book is a needed corrective to studies on political interest groups and reinforces the importance of local elections to the national electoral process.

—J. D. Rausch, West Texas A&M University

Anzia, Sarah F. Local interests: politics, policy, and interest groups in US city governments. Chicago, 2022. 312p bibl index ISBN 9780226819273, $105.00; ISBN 9780226819297 pbk, $35.00; ISBN 9780226819280 ebook, $34.99.

This innovative book studies the influence of interest groups on the workings of city governments in the US. Anzia (Univ. of California, Berkley) clearly argues that most research on interest groups focuses on national-level politics and ignores local politics. She also attends to the ways local politics drive national political conversations. In the first part of the book, Anzia provides a theoretical framework and many insights into political parties, the activities of local interest groups, and the types of groups that are most active. In the rest of the book, she examines broad and specific policy areas, dedicating one chapter to economic development and another to public safety spending. The book ends with a final chapter on local elections before summarizing the power of local interest groups. A key element of this book is its discussion of why policies are enacted in some local governments but not in others. This book is a needed corrective to studies on political interest groups and reinforces the importance of local elections to the national electoral process. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty. —J. D. Rausch, West Texas A&M University

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With this book, Crane’s status and value will be incontrovertible. Readers will be convinced.

—B. Wallenstein, emeritus, CUNY City College

Auster, Paul. Burning boy: the life and work of Stephen Crane. H. Holt, 2021. 800p bibl index ISBN 9781250235831, $35.00; ISBN 9781250848543 pbk, $25.00; ISBN 9781250235848 ebook, $16.99.

Paul Auster, author of novels, poetry, memoirs, and film scripts, has now produced a magisterial literary biography of 19th-century poet and fiction writer Stephen Crane (1871–1900). Crane had a short life but produced the classic The Red Badge of Courage and many admired works of short fiction and poetry. Auster makes the convincing case that Crane’s poetry prefigures modernism. Crane knew the giants of his time, including Henry James, Joseph Conrad, and Theodore Roosevelt. Auster shows how incidents in Crane’s life and the social/political environment connect to his literary compositions, with superb quotes from published letters and contemporary memoirs. Auster has absorbed the previous scholarship on Crane and acknowledges the work done in the past. Unlike many literary biographies, Auster’s book—his approach and his prose style—is totally engaging. Though Auster is not known as a literary scholar, this book is an important addition to a long list of books on Crane, starting with Thomas Beer’s Stephen Crane: A Study in American Letters (1923) and most recently Paul Sorrentino’s Stephen Crane: A Life of Fire (CH, Dec’14, 52-1848). In places Auster seems to be selling his subject—arguing that Crane has been undervalued until now.  With this book, Crane’s status and value will be incontrovertible. Readers will be convinced. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. —B. Wallenstein, emeritus, CUNY City College

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In addition to outlining the array of challenges Black women face, the book also reveals the many ways Black women have impacted and influenced the development of public health through employment and activism and offers suggestions for improving both public health and the experiences of Black women.

—J. A. Beicken, Rocky Mountain College

Black women and public health: strategies to name, locate, and change systems of power, ed. by Stephanie Y. Evans, Sarita K. Davis, Leslie R. Hinkson, and Deanna J. Wathington. SUNY Press, 2022. 336p bibl index ISBN 9781438487311, $95.00; ISBN 9781438487328 pbk, $32.95; ISBN 9781438487335 ebook, contact publisher for price.

As Davis laments in her introductory remarks, despite the immense wealth of the US, “Black women are the least healthy ethnic and gendered group in this country” (p. 16). This volume addresses complex issues that have fostered a health crisis for Black women in the US, from chronic stress and domestic violence at home to racism and implicit bias suffered while under the care of medical professionals, resulting in inferior care. Included essays speak to the shockingly high rate of Black maternal mortality while exploring the intertwined histories of gynecology and eugenics, a convergence that resulted in systemic dehumanization of Black women, denying their humanity and experiences of pain and removing their agency by making intrusive decisions about their reproductive futures. The recent Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and leaves many Black women without reproductive freedom and in greater physical and emotional peril, certainly exacerbates these issues. In addition to outlining the array of challenges Black women face, the book also reveals the many ways Black women have impacted and influenced the development of public health through employment and activism and offers suggestions for improving both public health and the experiences of Black women. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. —J. A. Beicken, Rocky Mountain College

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Though some readers will find it highly controversial, this is a thought-provoking text.

—B. C. Beins, Ithaca College

Clegg, Joshua W. Good science: psychological inquiry as everyday moral practice. Cambridge, 2022. 160p bibl index ISBN 9781316519752, $99.00; ISBN 9781009011129 pbk, $32.99; ISBN 9781009022019 ebook, $26.00.

Conducting research involves making choices. Some are perfunctory; others are based on more active decision-making. In either case, as argued by Clegg (City Univ. of New York) in this volume on “everyday moral practice,” such decisions are moral choices. He notes that personal, institutional, and historical contexts drive any research project, so to create good science, researchers must consider the impact of these varied contexts in deciding what questions to pose and who should formulate them, what resources will be involved, how interpersonal relationships may unfold as a project moves to completion, and how interpretation of results is a function of existing social context. Clegg’s particular focus is on psychological research, but he makes the case that the moral aspect of these choices is relevant to research in all sciences. Some researchers might dismiss the idea that their own choices involve such considerations, but the author discusses institutional elements that pertain to any systematic research program and their implications for ensuring that the resulting science passes the moral validity test. Clegg supplements his argument with pedagogical suggestions and presents a different perspective about what constitutes good science. Though some readers will find it highly controversial, this is a thought-provoking text. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and faculty. General readers. —B. C. Beins, Ithaca College

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The author’s style is concise, clear, and often humorous, and the conclusions offered brook no dissent.

—J. F. Heberle, Albright College

Goel, Vinod. Reason and less: pursuing food, sex, and politics. MIT, 2022. 440p bibl index ISBN 9780262045476 pbk, $45.00; ISBN 9780262369701 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Perhaps this work’s title should be Reason and More as Goel (York Univ.) here integrates the pieces needed to explain fundamental human behaviors in relation to rationality rather than argue one side of the existing debate or the other. For experienced academics, this text offers an excellent review and reframing of many areas of existing research—readers gain a different perspective on familiar work. For less experienced scholars, Goel’s rapid journey through so many territories of research might be initially overwhelming, but the tour is still potentially valuable as a good introduction to the issues surrounding current models of human behavior and reason. The author’s style is concise, clear, and often humorous, and the conclusions offered brook no dissent. The book’s 15 chapters are organized into six parts. Coverage includes problems that remain associated with most models of rationality while proposing a model of “tethered rationality” (p. 25) and applying that model to a diverse set of behaviors. In a later section, Goel proposes a central role for feelings (in an ironic yet aptly appropriate tone) and provides some guidance on how to go about changing minds, given the fairly serious limitations implied by the proposed model. An excellent read. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. —J. F. Heberle, Albright College

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Pears demonstrates how the thoughtful study of these mechanisms can provide knowledge of how political attachment might be reinvigorated and restored to health in a time of profound political polarization and ever-diminishing regard for political institutions and the Constitution itself.

—P. N. Malcolmson, emeritus, St. Thomas University

Pears, Emily. Cords of affection: constructing constitutional union in early American history. University Press of Kansas, 2021. 328p bibl index ISBN 9780700632787, $39.95; ISBN 9780700632794 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Taking the title from a famous phrase by Madison in The Federalist Papers, Pears (Claremont McKenna College) provides an excellent scholarly study of the concept of “political attachment.” As Pears notes, “Americans today have all but lost their shared sense of national identity” (p. 137). Without such an identity, common ground disappears and attachment fades. Can a liberal democratic regime such as the US survive an enervated sense of political attachment? Using the founding of the US as a case study, Pears identifies three mechanisms through which attachment was initially cultivated: the appeal to self-interest as presented in the political theory of The Federalist; the cultural approach advocated by the anti-Federalists, which involved the development of a national historical narrative; and the participatory mechanism, exemplified in Jefferson’s civic republicanism and Van Buren’s theory of national political parties. Pears demonstrates how the thoughtful study of these mechanisms can provide knowledge of how political attachment might be reinvigorated and restored to health in a time of profound political polarization and ever-diminishing regard for political institutions and the Constitution itself. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —P. N. Malcolmson, emeritus, St. Thomas University

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Nevertheless, readers will appreciate the breadth of media covered in the text—including electrical wires, Tupperware, filing cabinets, and sidewalks—that illustrates the ubiquity of media technology and its role in maintaining white supremacy and patriarchy.

—K. Gentles-Peart, Roger Williams University

Re-understanding media: feminist extensions of Marshall McLuhan, ed. by Sarah Sharma and Rianka Singh. Duke, 2022. 280p bibl index ISBN 9781478015253, $99.95; ISBN 9781478017875 pbk, $26.95; ISBN 9781478022497 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Correcting the lack of feminist and critical race considerations in the body of work of media ecologist Marshall McLuhan, this text explores the gender and racial power dynamics inherent in media technology. The contributors to the volume do not reinterpret McLuhan as a critical scholar nor do they dismiss his theories completely. Rather, they apply McLuhan’s frameworks to analyze spaces, elements, and bodies excluded from his original philosophies. Each chapter is a self-contained mini-essay that can be assigned separately, though some preparatory work in McLuhan’s theories may be necessary. The language of the text tends to draw heavily on the vernacular of critical media ecology, which may pose a challenge for people not steeped in the field. Nevertheless, readers will appreciate the breadth of media covered in the text—including electrical wires, Tupperware, filing cabinets, and sidewalks—that illustrates the ubiquity of media technology and its role in maintaining white supremacy and patriarchy. The various modes of analyses presented—such as semiotic analysis, autoethnography, and interviews—also demonstrate the breadth of methodologies used in feminist and critical race media studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. —K. Gentles-Peart, Roger Williams University

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The book is remarkably readable for literary criticism, well researched but not stuffy, personable but still vigorous.

Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels.

Roston, Tom. The writer’s crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the many lives of Slaughterhouse-five. Abrams, 2021. 272p bibl index ISBN 9781419744891, $26.00; ISBN 9781683359241 ebook, contact publisher for price.

Everyone should read this book, both those who are big fans of Vonnegut (1922–2007) and those who find him flippant and confusing. The Writer’s Crusade makes a lot of sense. An over-simplified explanation of Roston’s thesis is that Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut’s famous antiwar novel, is haunted by Vonnegut’s struggles to address his war experiences as a POW during the Allied bombing of Dresden in February, March, and April 1945. Those efforts and the resulting novel are similarly haunted by what is now known as PTSD. Roston makes his own conclusions clear but leaves room for readers to differ. The book is remarkably readable for literary criticism, well researched but not stuffy, personable but still vigorous. Roston spoke with family, friends, psychiatrists, and Vonnegut scholars; read all of Vonnegut’s public statements and writings on the subject as well as unpublished materials; examined the realistic characters and storylines in the novel and also the “speculative” or fantastic elements that break up the grim narrative of the Dresden experiences; and consulted with other combat-veteran writers with their own PTSD struggles. The result is a remarkable, solid, compelling achievement. Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels. —J. A. Zoller, emeritus, Houghton College

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This strong work will be useful in academic settings, starting from a firm grounding in Marx and Freud that addresses strengths and weaknesses in both schools of thought and concluding with detailed analyses of diverse popular culture topics such as the politics of 1970s’ British science fiction, contemporary hip-hop and K-pop cultures, and the current extreme right of American political life.

—P. L. Kantor, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy

Sharzer, Greg. Late escapism and contemporary neoliberalism: alienation, work and Utopia. Routledge, 2021. 180p bibl index ISBN 9781138242319, $160.00; ISBN 9781315278735 ebook, contact the publisher.

This book sets out to develop a new field of study in the social sciences focused on the social relations associated with escapism. Sharzer (Univ. of Toronto, Scarborough) makes a compelling case that escapism has historically been disregarded as an unhealthy individual reaction to personal circumstances when it is instead a reasonable reaction to alienation and a necessary social mechanism to aid in coming to terms with hegemonic but disfavored ideologies and to help people find ways forward to new, more favorable cultural patterns. This strong work will be useful in academic settings, starting from a firm grounding in Marx and Freud that addresses strengths and weaknesses in both schools of thought and concluding with detailed analyses of diverse popular culture topics such as the politics of 1970s’ British science fiction, contemporary hip-hop and K-pop cultures, and the current extreme right of American political life. Perhaps the only weakness is that after making such a strong case for the importance of escapism as a social mechanism allowing for cultural progress, facilitated through synthesis of realizable Utopian ideals and by overcoming unwelcome oppressive ideologies, in the last few pages, Sharzer falls back on discussing how escapism can help lead people to adopt a traditional Marxist ideology. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and faculty. General readers. —P. L. Kantor, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy

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This book deserves a wide reading among historians and anthropologists as well as health care and public policy researchers.

—J. M. Rich, Marywood University

Walker, Benjamin Bronnert. Religion in global health and development: the case of twentieth-century Ghana. McGill-Queen’s, 2022. 336p bibl index ISBN 9780228010524, $140.00; ISBN 9780228011699 pbk, $44.96; ISBN 9780228011590 ebook, contact publisher for price.

This is a groundbreaking study of the relationships between missionary organizations, health care, and development in Africa from the 1920s to roughly 1990. Diverging from the broad anthropological approach common in literature focused on a local or regional setting, this book instead offers a rich institutional history of the intersections between the Ghanaian state, Catholic and Protestant missions, and various international donor agencies on a national scale. Walker (Diocese of Leeds) dispenses with simplistic clichés about the collusion between colonialism and missions, effectively combining archival research in the US, Ghana, the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. His findings include that Catholic and Protestant Ghanaian clergy and foreign missionaries often reshaped the goals of state authorities and international agencies. Rather than assuming that missions fell into decline after independence, Walker shows that they actually proved vital in providing care when structural adjustment stripped bare the Ghanaian state’s health care in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Dutch and West German Catholic organizations became major donors, confounding the idea that missions were always closely tied to colonial pasts. This book deserves a wide reading among historians and anthropologists as well as health care and public policy researchers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. General readers. —J. M. Rich, Marywood University

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